With reference to the latter case, it is known that the ski-boots comprise a rigid shell to which a boot leg is hinged to wrap the lower portion of the skier's leg and to allow variations in the bending of the leg with respect to the foot and the ski. Finally, in order to make more comfortable the fit of the ski-boot, an inner shoe is housed inside the shell and boot leg, e.g. a shoe made of soft material. The fastening device includes at least a first and a second member hinged to each other at one of their ends, with the opposite ends of said members being hinged to the shell and boot leg respectively and one of said members being provided with an operating arm.
With reference to the way by which the foot is placed into the ski-boot, there are substantially two kinds of ski-boots. A first type, the so-called front-entry ski-boot, usually has two flaps on the front portion of the ski-boot defining an opening which the foot is put into. The second type, known as rear-entry ski-boot, consists of a shell, a front tongue and a boot leg. It clearly appears that the rear-entry ski-boots allow a more easy entry of the foot into the ski-boot. Furthermore, these ski-boots have a good seal against water and snow.
However, these ski-boots have some drawbacks due to the fact that, in order to allow the entry of the foot, the distance between the ski-boot portion corresponding to the instep and the ski-boot portion wherein the heel is housed, must be increased.
Consequently, the thickness of the shoe portion corresponding to the instep must be increased which results in little effective contact between the foot and the ski-boot.
Another problem is the lack of boot leg inclination adjustment with respect to the shell.
Therefore, central-entry ski-boots have been conceived and made which are similar to the rear-entry ski-boots. These ski-boots, however, are provided with devices which allow the backward inclination of the boot leg with respect to the shell in order to facilitate the entry of the foot thus achieving the usual advantages of the rear-entry ski-boots. Such a kind of ski-boots has another advantage which consists in facilitating walking when the boot leg is inclinated backwards. An embodiment is depicted in European Patent Application No. 0229405, the FIGS. 9 to 12 of which depict a fastening device comprising two cranks 29, 31 hinged between each other by a pin 32 and, respectively, hinged to the shell 1 and to the boot leg 2 by means of respective pins 30 and 35. FIG. 9 illustrates the device in the fastened position wherein the boot leg is inclined forwards. Starting from this position, a crank hinged to the shell is activated so as to move the crank away from the boot leg, and when the device is released the pins 30 and 35 are more near each other and, consequently, the boot leg inclines backwards. In order to take the boot leg to the initial position and to fasten the device, it is sufficient to pull the same crank up to the previous position. However, the above described devices have various drawbacks owing to the fact that during walking activity, when the boot leg is backwardly inclined, as indicated in FIGS. 10 and 11, the device projects from the boot leg. In fact, when considering that during the sporting activity the skier walks in an awkward manner owing to the heavy clothes and sporting equipment such as the skis, a device projecting from the rear part of the ski-boot may hinder the already difficult walk. Furthermore, the device might strike obstacles thus undergoing damages or even hit surrounding people thus causing possible accidents.